Two hundred and fifty scientists are circumnavigating the globe aboard two Spanish naval vessels to assess the effects of climate change on ocean ecosystems and to explore their rich diversity. Graham Phillips recently joined the crew and scientists aboard the Hesperides between Sydney and Auckland.

NARRATION
The Hesperides is a science research ship. One of the most sophisticated in the world. Surfacing now is one of its work horse instruments, the rosette. It takes water samples from the shallowest depths to the very deepest.

Dr Graham Phillips
They can take samples up to seven kilometres down, that's the very bottom of the deepest oceans.

NARRATION
Each of those tubes holds a single , collected in an ingenious way.

Dr Graham Phillips
Before the instrument goes in the top and the bottom of these tubes are open, so as it goes down through the sea. water just rushes through. When it gets to the depth they want to take a sample, they're automatically snapped shut.

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The rosette allows the microscopic life of the deep to be studied.

Prof Carlos Duarte
We have a very superficial knowledge of the ocean because most of our research therefore has focused on the two, on the top two hundred metres of the ocean.

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The deep ocean has life adapted to an extreme world of high pressure and low light.

Prof Carlos Duarte
Also it contains the oldest organisms on earth and a broad diversity of different ways to resolve the problems of becoming a life.

NARRATION
Shallow water samples are also important.

Sarah-Jeanne Royer
Now I am sampling water from a ten metre depth.

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Sarah's looking at the gasses given off by microscopic sea plants, phytoplankton.

Sarah-Jeanne Royer
Potentially have an impact on cloud formation and regulated climate.

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The gas is called dimethyl sulphide, its released into the atmosphere where it back scatters sunlight and so can affect the climate. Laura and Gemma are fishing.

Dr Graham Phillips
What are you going to catch in the nets?

Laura Morales Perez
We're going to catch some plankton.

NARRATION
The nets are lowered deep into the water. As they're pulled up they act like very fine tea strainers trapping plankton from a column of water.

Gemma Caballero Rodriguez
We're collecting the samples for analysing in the lab for organic pollutants.

NARRATION
They're going to examine the sea going plankton to see how much air pollution they've absorbed, because even out here far from cities there are pollutants.

Laura Morales Perez
Yeah there are. There are. It seems incredible but we find.

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By sampling the air they can see how many of the pollutants get into the sea food chain.

Laura Morales Perez
We compare the ones from the air with the water and plankton and we, we see the equilibrium and transport between air and water.

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In the very top five centimetres of the sea is a unique ecosystem. This net skims along sampling it.

Prof Miquel Alcaraz
It is like a glider that just filters on the surface of the sea water and captures all the, the organisms that live in the interface between water and the sphere.

NARRATION
Miquel's had a good catch today.

Prof Miquel Alcaraz
I must clean up all that stuff and see what we have captured.

NARRATION
There's a water strider that eke out their existence walking on the surface of the ocean and remarkable collection of other creatures. Like in Malaspina's day, Miquel likes to hand draw his samples. But nowadays of course there's also digital photography. This is just some of what's been dragged up. The oceans are vital to all life on earth. For us land lovers more than half of the oxygen we breathe for example comes from plankton in the seas. So research vessels like the Hesperides play a crucial role in our future.

Story Contacts

Professor Carlos Duarte
The UWA Oceans Institute

Sarah-Jeanne Royer
Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona

Gemma Caballero Rodriguez
University of Barcelona

Laura Morales Pérez
University of Barcelona

Professor Miquel Alcaraz
Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona

Related Info

Malaspina 2010, the biggest ever expedition on global change, sets sail

Malaspina expedition 2010

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